During my legal consulting projects I have seen instances of this with people who review marketing and promotional literature, with compliance staff, with documentation specialists, with technical staff, and with contract administrators. A lawyer supervises their work, but their headcount and costs remain on someone else’s org chart and budget (See my post of Jan. 15, 2009: business units sometimes provide headcount for free.).

In the end, it does not matter who pays for a person or claims them on their rolls. What matters is how well they are led and managed.